Feb new features survey: full results and analysis

We have to admit: we love surveys! We’ve run a few already and they’ve always been eye-opening. This February edition is no exception. About 80 of you kindly shared your opinion. We love surveys because they remind us that we all have different views and that our ideas are not always shared by everyone. More on this at the bottom of this article.

For this Feb edition we suggested 12 new features / improvements. In the graph below, you can see the % who answered “I really want this” for each new feature suggestion:

The first thing that is striking about these results is that they are nicely clustered. We have clear winners on top, a few somewhat successful ideas in the middle and clear losers at the bottom. We’ve drawn out three red boxes to illustrate these clusters.

The Winners

– Recipes with ingredients and instructions. This feature always comes up way on top. Every single time. 78% of you “really want this”. We knew you wanted it but wanted to double check again because it’s a big chunk of work. We’ve been postponing it for a while to focus on the more “social” features (Likes, Comments, Favorites, Notification panel, etc). We understand that browsing through what other’s are eating can be inspiring but that it can also be frustrating not having the recipes and instructions to actually make it yourself. So we will work on recipes very soon. If anyone knows where we can get a pack of pro recipes, please shout out!

– Paleo tips & advice. The result to this suggestion actually surprised us. We didn’t realise so many people would want to have tips within the app. There is already so much info out on the web. I guess having quality tips and advice within the app makes it an easier and more accessible one-stop shop. We’ll work on this!

–Coupons for Paleo foods and products. Also impressed by the result of this idea. We added this suggestion at the last minute seeing coupons on many sites, but no full comprehensive list anywhere. High quality food is expensive and everyone is on the lookout for a good deal. If you have any products/brands that you would like to get coupons for, please share in the comments section below and we will reach out to the producers.

The Somewhat Successful Ideas

– Thumbnail view for your “Journal” section. We’re slightly disappointed by the feedback on this one. Less than 40% of you “really wanted” it. Adrien is currently working on implementing this new layout (with the “groups” feature, see below). At the moment we find the “Journal” section hard to navigate and we thought a zoomed-out “thumbnail” view would bring a better vison of what you have eaten during the week, each day. It’s hard to describe exactly what we are putting together, but we hope you will like it when you see it!

– A place to note symptoms after eating. A couple of you emailed us suggesting this feature so we wanted to see what the community as a whole thought about it. The response is average. This “food diary” feature probably appeals more to those of you who are on AIP or who are trying to figure out what foods you have an intolerance to. We will keep this idea in mind but won’t start implementing it until we really understand what could be useful. Please share your ideas in the comments below.

– Take part in a 30 day challenge. We’ve organised a few 30 day challenges over the past months and they’ve always been successful. They were organised outside of the app (mostly structured as a daily email with tips, recipes and a summary of everyone’s score). Our last challenge, the January edition, was particularly successful, with participants increasing their chances of eating well for 30 days consecutively by x5. So we considered making Challenges a more integral part of the app. 37% of you “really want this”, which is good, but not the biggest crowd pleaser. We will definitely run another challenge soon, but keep it out of the app for now.

– Track chest / waist / hip measurements. The “track weight” feature currently available is very rudimentary. We wanted to see if you guys wanted something a bit more sophisticated, with the option to track body measurements on top of weight. Because we all know body composition changes don’t show on the scale. 36% of you “really want this”, which is actually higher than expected.

– Join groups. We expected a lot more enthusiasm for this idea! A dozen of you emailed us asking how they could filter the feed to see only Primal or only AIP food, or even only AIP breakfast ideas. With this feedback we started developing a tag system to let you filter the feed to suit your preference. This is also useful for the voting/feedback system. Someone posting a Primal plate with a bit of cheese won’t get penalised for it anymore. Adrien is almost finished with this feature, so expect to see it soon!

The Losers

– Customise time of meal reminder push notifications. Clearly not as “epic” as some other suggestions. Few of you care about this, so let’s forget about it.

– Send private messages to other users. We just put this out there to see what you guys though. Only 22% of you “really want this”, so clearly not a priority.

– Showcase your Max Day Streak in “Stats” section and Leaderboard ranked on Day Streak: OUCH! We thought this was an awesome idea! And apparently you don’t agree. Let us give you a bit of background to all this. Keeping a daily food journal has be proven by dozens of studies to be the single most powerful tool to change your eating habits and improve your health. Based on this, the idea behind myPaleoPal was to help people commit to keeping a daily food journal by making the food journalling experience more social and fun. The “social” part is covered now (likes, comments, etc) but we think we can further improve the experience by making it more into a “game”: points, levels, rewards etc. The Day Streak is one of the most important performance indicators: health is about consistency and habit change: the longer you commit to eating well and exercising, the better the health results. So by putting more emphasis on showcasing the Day Streak indicator (in your “stats” page or in the Leaderboard), we thought it would encourage consistency. Please share your thoughts on this below. Do you want more gamification? A bit more competition? Do you want to get rewards for reaching certain milestones?